Achi news desk-
For 17 years a firefighter from Montreal, Lieutenant Gabriel Thibert, has been risking his life to save others, but since January he has been fighting for his own life due to brain cancer.
“It all started on the 22nd of January when I had a stroke,” he explains.
January is National Firefighter Cancer Awareness Month.
Thibert, 39, was diagnosed with stage 4 glioblastoma. The father of two says he was shocked when he got the news. He has since undergone surgery. The news also hit his colleagues hard, especially his friend, Alexandre Kheir.
“A lot of questions, a lot of grief because it’s cancer, a lot of people don’t get through it,” Kheir said.
According to Dr Rhian Touyzgl, executive director and chief scientific officer at the McGill University Health Center Research Institute (RI-MUHC), glioblastoma is rare and, although it can happen to anyone of any age, it mostly occurs in men . He added that the tumor usually grows very quickly.
“Once a diagnosis is made, it’s usually between 12 and 18 months,” he told Global News.
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In most cases, he said, researchers still don’t know what causes the disease.
That is why Kheir and his colleagues are campaigning to raise money for research at the RI-MUHC. They also hope to raise more money for a special treatment that Thibert says could extend his life.
It is called ‘Tumor Treatment Fields’ (TTF), which is used to fight tumours. According to the American Cancer Society TTF involves “exposing certain types of tumor cells to alternating electric fields,” and that “the therapy can interfere with the cells’ ability to grow and spread.” According to Thibert, it is expensive.
“Twenty-seven thousand dollars a month, so it’s not something you can afford when you’re a firefighter,” he laughs.
Kheir added that there was another reason for the campaign.
“To raise awareness of brain cancer, there is an increased risk of developing cancer for firefighters in their line of work,” he pointed out.
It is not known whether Thibert got cancer because of his work as a firefighter, but according to the federal government, “from 2005 to 2016, 86 percent of occupational death claims for Canadian firefighters were cancer-related,” and that firefighters are “14 percent more likely than the general public to die from cancer.”
Kheir, however, says things are improving saying, “the union is working very hard with the city right now and the Montreal fire department.”
Thibert is expected to start chemotherapy in a few weeks.
& copy 2024 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
